This fact we verified by ascending the adjacent mountain side to a considerable elevation during the movement, where we found but few birds. The photo at the top of this post is what you see in your field guide. Townsend’s Warblers breed in mature coniferous and mixed forests, but they nest and forage high in the trees, making them a challenge to see well. Nest (probably built by both sexes) is a large shallow cup of grass stems, mosses, cedar bark, and fir twigs; lined with moss, feathers, and hair. Published by the Smithsonian Institution between the 1920s and the 1950s, the Bent life history series of monographs provide an often colorful description of the birds of North America. Dr. Merrill (1898) says that the song, as he heard it in Idaho, "usually consists of five notes, de.~ de~ dd: d~ d~, all, especially the first three, uttered in the peculiar harsh drawl of D. 'viren.s. Are the Trump Administration's Environmental Rollbacks Built to Last? If you find the information on BirdWeb useful, please consider supporting Seattle Audubon. Warblers, Tanagers, Grosbeaks (and maybe a Rock Dove).
The measurements of 40 eggs average 17.4 by 12.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 19.0 by 12.7, 17.3 by 13.6, 15.2 by 12.7, and 17.4 by 12.3 millimeters (Harris).Plumages: Maj. Allan Brooks (1934) gives the following good description of the juvenal plumage of Townsend's warbler: "Upper surface brownish olive, greener on dorsum and grayer on crown; lores and auriculars dusky brown, a broad supercilium and malar stripe whitish, faintly tinged with yellow; chin and throat dusky olive gray passing into white on the ventral region and crissum, the flanks and breast streaked with dusky; wings with two white bars formed by the tips of the greater and lesser coverts, tertials edged with ash gray, the black central shafts of the white bars seen in the second (first winter) plumage are barely indicated; tail as in second plumage. Of this, bugs make up 42 percent, mostly stink-bugs (Pentatomidae) and a few leaf-hoppers and scales." (iuatemala: Tecp~n, May 2. The frustration is compounded by warblers' small size and active habits.
Strikingly patterned, Townsend's Warblers light up winter days throughout coastal California where they remain from fall through spring. The two nests, each containing four newly hatched young: were both placed about twelve feet up in small firs, one some five feet ant on a limb, the other close against the main trunk. Townsend's Warblers are primarily birds of coniferous forests, especially mature, dense stands of at least 20 acres.
The Townsend's Warbler hybridizes with the similar-looking Hermit Warbler where their ranges overlap in Oregon and Washington. Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures. "On April 25, 1917, he saw a similar flight at the same place. The glacial history written in the bordering mountains and the volcanic history seen in nearby craters, Mammoth Mountain, the Long Valley Caldera, and islands in Mono Lake itself are all worthy topics of study in their own right.
Townsend's Warbler: Olive-green upperparts, black throat and upper breast. Named after the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I am a naturalist based in Central California. Professor Cooke (1904) says that "an early migrating Townsend warbler was seen on April 9 in the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona. These were the engravers (Scolytidae), which lay their eggs beneath the bark of trees, where they hatch, and the larvae bore In every direction. Arizona: Tombstone, April 3. Chihuahua: Durazno, November 7.Early dates of fall arrival are: Oregon: Fremont National Forest, August 20. Their songs are generally dry, unmusical, often complex whistles (“warbles”).
Most of North America's 54 species of warblers sport yellow plumage to some extent, from the entirely yellow Wilson's, Prothonotary and Yellow Warblers, to those with more subtle patches of yellow, like the Black-throated Gray and Yellow-rumped Warblers. At least 3, commonly 4-5. Idaho: Cocur d'Alene, April 29. This warbler is rather common in numbers during migration throughout the … Most of them are winged species. Oklahoma: Kenton, September 27. Most Townsend's go to Mexico or Central America for the winter, but small numbers remain along the … Alaska: Craig, April 27.Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska: Ketehikan, September 5. In Washington, the tyrant flycatchers are the only suboscines; the remaining 27 families are oscines. Townsend's Warbler Setophaga townsendi.
Coastal British Columbia breeders make shorter journeys to California, Oregon, or the Washington coast. The adult female fall plumage is "similar to the spring and summer plumage, but upper parts slightly browner olive-green, with the streaks obsolete, or nearly so; sides and flanks tinged with brownish. In the winter, I have had excellent luck finding them in coastal riparian and coniferous forests and groves, from tracts of woodland habitat to suburban parks. The type locality is Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in the state of Washington. Townsend's Warblers have also been identified as highly susceptible to alteration of tropical forest habitats. The pretty Hartlaub's warbiers (Vemnivora 8uperciliosa) formed the nuclei of the mixed companies of small birds which roamed through the rain-drenched woods at the beginning of September. Dozens of western plants and animals bear the names of these early naturalists.
The ethereal, buzzy songs of Townsend’s Warblers wafting through old-growth conifer forests provide a dreamlike soundtrack to an enchanting environment. Tbere is no other western warbler that is much like it.Fall: Theed Pearse tells me that he has seen Townsend's warblers on migration through Vancouver Island, British Columbia, as early as August 13 and as late as October 9, but gives no winter records. Chollas, with blooming Desert Senna ( Cassia armata ) A drive through Joshua Tree National Park allows visitors to experience both desert ecosystems. Its voice is as much associated with the northwestern forests of tall firs as is that of our eastern bird with the pine woods of New England. View full list of Washington State's Species of Special Concern. Young leave the nest about 8-10 days after hatching.
Photo: Arnaud Lacroix/Audubon Photography Awards. Most Townsend's go to Mexico or Central America for the winter, but small numbers remain along the coast north to Oregon, Washington, and even Vancouver Island. In migration and winter (some birds do not migrate), the Townsend’s warbler may be found in other habitats. Townsend's Warbler'Hermit Warbler hybrids are common around Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens and the east slopes of the Olympic Mountains.Click here to visit this species' account and breeding-season distribution map in Sound to Sage, Seattle Audubon's on-line breeding bird atlas of Island, King, Kitsap, and Kittitas Counties. Later in the season this song changes somewhat."
Mrs. Amelia S. Allen writes to me from Berkeley, Calif., that Towsend's warbler is an abundant fall and spring migrant in California, where it is also a common winter visitant. All were in constant song and flitting about with rapid movements. In winter in the tropics, found mostly in mountain forests of pine, oak, and alder. In the coniferous forests which they frequent in summer, they confine their activities almost entirely to the tops of the tallest fir trees, where they travel rapidly, stopping only long enough to glean their food and then hastening onward, returning, perhaps, over the same trees in their active restless foraging.Later in the summer and as migration time draws near, they are frequently seen at lower levels, among deciduous trees and in second growth woods, often in association with kniglets, chickadees, other warblers, and juncos.Voice: Mrs. Allen (MS.) renders the song as a "weazy weazy 'weazy weazy tweea, rising in spirals, and the call-note a soft chip, not so metallic as the lutescent's, and less emphatic than the Audubon's."